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A Restaurant to Another World, is a light novel turned anime, that has just finished its twelfth episode on Crunchyroll. The anime focuses on a western style restaurant, that opens up to a fantasy world on the day of Satur. There is no explanation in the anime about this particular day, but one can only assume it is our equivalent of a Saturday. The rest of the time, the restaurant is open on our side to the normal people of Japan.

There are many characters that appear throughout the anime, but the ones I like the most are Alleta and Kuro. Aletta is a down on her luck demon, who stumbles on the door one day. That day she is offered a job in the restaurant, but just for that one day of the week. Kuro is a dragon of death, who lives on the moon so she doesn’t hurt anyone, as creatures are sensitive to her death magic. She is forced upon the master by her other dragon friend Red, who she comes across in the restaurant. She suppresses her magic by turning into an elf, which means she is able to be with the other diners. She talks telepathically to the diners, Master and Aletta.

Regarding the story line, there doesn’t appear to be an ongoing theme. Each episode shows each character as they stumble upon one of their doors and, the reaction they have to their food. The characters order the same thing every time they go, so the food name is their nickname to the other diners. As someone who is interested in cooking, this peaks my interest the most, as you see snippets of master making the food. However, their reactions can seem a little over dramatic and hit in the food porn category. These reactions remind me of Shokugeki no Soma, but without the stripping scenes.

The voice acting is right on par with the character. Each voice actor suits the character and their personalities. The voice actor choices for these roles were Junichi Suwabe (master), Sumire Uesaka (Aletta) and Saori Onishi (Kuro). The character designs on the other hand, are pretty basic. The master is in normal chef whites and the girls are in french maid outfits. The elves are in green and the lizard men only have loin cloths. This part makes me think that the anime was relying on the food to carry them throughout the series, when there is more that could have been done.

Overall, the anime is a good watch. You learn new recipes and get get immersed in different characters individual stories each week. I will worn you now though, it can make you pretty hungry!

For those of you that haven’t seen New Game! season 1, this is an anime about a young girl who joins a gaming company right out of high school. Her name is Aoba Suzukaze and she dreams about becoming a great character designer, like her leader and creator of her favourite game, Ko Yagami. The last season ended with the next installment of Aobas favourite game series, Fairies 3.

For those of you who do not know the characters, there are a great amount of interesting ones to keep you watching. Ko Yagami, her leader, has a habit of sleeping under the desk with no trousers on. Rin Toyama, the art director, is Kos best friend and has a habit of getting jealous whenever she gets close to someone else. Yun Lijima, another character designer, wears Gothic clothing and loves to take tea breaks. Umiko Ahagon is a military obsessed programmer who has a love for airsoft weapons. Hajime Shinoda is a motion designer who works in the character design department. She spends most of her money on prop weapons. Lastly, There is Hifumi Takimoto. She is a shy talking character designer who prefers to speak via email. She has a pet hedgehog named Sojiro and secretly enjoys cosplay.

Three new people join Eagle Jump this season. One of which is Aobas closest friend, Nene Sakura. The other two are interns from the local gaming school, Tsubame Narumi and Momoji Mochizuki. They both have been friends since childhood and live together. Tsubame is an outgoing girl who joins the programming team, whilst Momoji is a quiet girl who joins the character team and is a direct rival of Aoba, much to Aobas dismay.

One of the positives about this anime, is the fact you don’t feel the fact there was a production gap. The first episode takes off like it started from the episode before. It allows people who haven’t watched the first season to start it up very easily. One of the other positives is the female empowerment angle. Every employee in Eagle Jump appears to be female and, you watch them come together to create something great.

Even though there are a couple of positives, there are also a some negatives. Even though the anime is bright and colourful, it starts to feel unbelievable. You don’t see the pressures of working full time in the gaming industry, you don’t see the emotional progression of any of the characters. It just feels all bright sunny rainbows. Even though there is a twist in the first few episodes, which adds some pressure, you don’t see a true believable reaction.

When it comes to writing the conclusion for this, I am torn on which way to decide. A part of me wants to write about how amazing this anime is and how much you should watch it, whilst the other part of me thinks that the lack of believable nature and character development makes it fall short. All in all, if you haven’t watched the first season, I probably wouldn’t watch the second.

As an online gamer, who happens to be of the female variety, this title stood out to me. This is not a new release, having the whole twelve episodes, but after binging it, I thought it would be something to write about.

Hideki is a teenage boy who plays a free to play online game called Legendary Age. One day, he falls in love with a girl in the game and proposes to her. After finding out she is actually a man, he swears off online marriages. Yet, he ends up being married to a girl called Ako, due to her persistence. They are part of a guild of four members called the Alley cats. One day, their guild leader Apricot decides to arrange a meetup. Its then, that Hideki learns that they are actually school mates, one of them being his student body president. He also meets Ako, who thinks that she is in the game in real life. She thinks that Hideki is actually her husband and calls her guild mates by their online names. The anime follows them, as they play and try to get Ako to face reality.

One of the things I liked about this anime, is the fact that it puts you in the game. They look like they do in real life whenever they play, with the games clothing. It allows you to immerse yourself in the game along with them. One of the other things I liked, is the creepy moments Ako has. Whenever they mention people they call normies (people who are not otakus), her eyes go dark and she starts to giggle in a creepy way. As I am also a fan of of yandere personalities, I started to warm to her.

The downfalls of the anime is that even though Ako is supposed to think she is in the game, she doesn’t really act like it. The only thing she does is think that Hideki is her husband. When the anime started, I was prepared for more eccentric things than that. Another downfall is the actual game League of Age. When you see them look at the screen, the characters are flat chibi cartoons. It becomes unbelievable, that people would spend all day playing a game like that.

Overall, if you want to see people play online games, it is for you. If you were hoping for eccentric yanderes, you might want to try Future Diary instead.

A Centaur’s Life is about a Centaur called Himeno Kimihara. She is polite and quite girl with long red hair, which is rare for a Centaur. She is friends with a demon girl called Nozomi, who is a tom boy and Kyouko a half Satyr with a cool personality.

This anime is a slice of life, but with fantasy creatures. You can tell the author of the manga really put some thought into every creature, from their personalities to the structure of their clothes. I found this refreshing, as this is rare of anime these days. As for the art, it is simple, yet when it matters, the details are there.

The downfalls of this anime falls with the voice acting and the plot. As you go through the episodes, due to the softness and being too high pitched, you soon find the voice acting annoying. As for the plot, or shall I say lack thereof, you will also soon find it boring.

Overall, this is an anime that I would not recommend, if you want something that will keep your attention.

Keijo, otherwise known as Hip Whip Girl, is about a gambling sport which hit Japan over the 21st Century. The Keijo sport involves a group of women, fighting to knock each other off the floating platforms on a pool, otherwise known as land. The only catch, is that they can only use their breasts and bums.

The anime revolves around Nozomi, a starry eyed gymnast, who graduates school and aims to become the richest Keijo player in Japan. She comes across a former judo champion in a Keijo arena, Sayaka, and soon they become friends and rivals. They attend the Western Keijo School and work together to become the best.

This anime focuses on character development as well as fan service. There is a girl called non, who has a soft butt, so she has the ability to knock people off with their own impact, otherwise known as counter. She starts off as afraid of the other players, but soon gains confidence and moves to the top ranks with the other girls in her dorm. Sayaka compensates for her small breasts and works towards becoming the fastest Outfighter in Japan, using her speed and her butt. Kazane starts out soft spoken and unsure of herself, by the end of the season she becomes a strong player with her scanning hand, the ability to copy anyones’s once she places her hands on their butt.

The whole idea of Keijo seems to be very sexist with a main male crowd. In the manga, the professional races start with parading the butts so that the gamblers know who to put their money on. Yet the anime makes up for that misgiving when you see the abilities the girls have. They are so silly yet incredibly entertaining, it is like they have super powers. I wont give the entertainment away to my readers, but it is something to be thoroughly enjoyed.

Overall, this anime is right up my perverted ally. It has the right amount of character development and boobage, with some typical yet amazing anime fight scenes. I can’t wait for season 2 to get here!

Stalking and kleptomania has never been something that I have considered in itself cute. I have always considered it a creepy and disturbing hobby, yet, Momokuri has turned this disturbing act into something completely different. They have made it as cute as a couple of fluffy bunny ears.

The anime is about a girl called Kurihara Yuki. She is stalking a short boy called Momotsuki Shinya, nicknamed ‘Momo-kun’. She takes photos of his expressions and collects items he has touched. She decides to tell Momo how she feels when she hits two hundred pictures. Momo accepts her feelings and the anime is about them progressing their relationship.

The one positive thing that kept me watching this anime was its innocence. They don’t kiss, he only walks her to the bus stop and they do wholesome activities like a BBQ and studying. The clothing that they wear are even more adorable. Momo and his friends wear corduroys and cardigans, whereas the girls also wear cardigans and dresses.

This is where the negatives come in. As adorable and charming it might be, it lacks any reality. The ability to relate to any of the characters are lost the moment the episode starts. Furthermore, the colours are pastel and bright, the art is simple and the voices are incredibly high pitched. One of the factors I take into account when watching anime is the art. Making this rainbow anime unforgivable. You can watch an anime which is simple, yet this was too simple.

This week I watched Toradora!. This is a light novel turned anime series, which was released in 2008. The story is about a second year high school student named Ryuji Takasu, who looks like a thug, but actually has a gentle personality. He meets a small hot headed girl named Taiga Aisaka and, through a series of events, they end up working together, to get closer to the people they are in love with. Ryuji is in love with Taigas best friend Minori Kushieda and, Taiga is in love with Ryujis only friend Yusaku Kitamura. Minori is an extreme and energetic personality, who works hard at school and holds lots of part time jobs. Yusaku is the vice president of the student council and, a member of the soft ball team, along with Minori.

The beginning of the anime is pretty good. It follows Ryuji and Taiga in their daily lives, tormenting one another and developing a friendship. Having found out that she lives next door, Ryuji cooks for her and makes her lunches everyday. She eventually becomes one of the family and, is loved by Ryujis’ unconventional mother Yasuko.

The anime takes an unpleasant turn as the series goes on. A new character is introduced, Ami Kawashima. Everyone thinks she is a cute air head model, but really she is a spoilt princess, who puts on a persona. She is childhood friends with Yusaku. She begins to see that Taiga and Ryuji are in love with each other and, she develops feelings for Ryuji herself. She becomes mean to all of them, making snide comments, because she can’t stand how stupid they are being, in not confessing to each other. I found this very annoying and, it overshadowed what could of been some really good scenes.

Another unpleasant turn the anime takes, is its knack for the over dramatic. The characters yell at each other, cry and fight each other, when all they had to do was say how they felt. You end of turning the volume down on the TV, because their voices hurt your eardrums.

This anime had the potential to be very good, but the moment Ami came in and, the moment they started yelling at each other, they completely lost me.